Holy Moly! Time has been escaping me! I hate that I have not posted in over a month! Ugh! Well, with trying to get into a routine, along with normal life occurrences getting in the way, i.e., Easter, illness, a death in the family, and hubby out of town... that really shakes things up and throws absolutely everything off. I have had the most enormous laundry pile up that I have ever had and I am still not out of the woods with that. The baby has been diagnosed with severe infant eczema which became terribly inflamed after I had consumed an abnormal amount of coconut (darn samoa girl scout cookies). Finding that coconut triggers it led to looking at the labels of EVERYTHING I consume since he is exclusively breastfed, as well as everything that touches him, like our detergents and skin care products. It's been a chore, but he is looking tremendously better. So, we have been busy, busy in recent weeks, to say the least.

Anywho, now that we are all healthy again after a nasty cough and sinus thing passed from one family member to the next, my husband and I are trying to incorporate yoga into our evenings after the kids are in bed. From the first time I ever attended a yoga class, I knew I was in love. It is so relaxing, and you feel amazing after you are done. I was lucky enough to take a prenatal yoga class with my last pregnancy. Participating in that after not doing yoga for years reminded me how much I love it. It also helped my labor tremendously! My husband on the other hand is not your typical "yoga" guy. He prefers to go to the gym and use free weights, machines and run, though recently with work and 3 kiddos, he just can't seem to work gym time into his daily routine. So, a compromise for him is doing yoga with me in the evenings, even if its for only 30 minutes. It is a great way to wind down at night. With only doing it for a short time, I am feeling better and so is my insanely nonflexible husband who has found that he enjoys it as well. Who knows, maybe this will lead to something we continue to do for many years to come. Hey, maybe dropping in on an instructed yoga class could be a new date night option! We shall see! In the mean time, I just hope we stick with it!

Looking back to my personal goals of the year, the two that I seem to keep pushing towards the back burner are yoga and zumba. NOT GOOD! After reading a blog post of a high school friend about her goals and challenges with losing baby weight and just being active to set an example for her daughter, it struck a cord with me. I have never thought about my lack of physical activity and how it influences my children and their future.

Growing up, neither of my parents were the type to work out. My mother was busy raising the three of us, and I certainly know, that alone is daily exercise, but she never deliberately set aside time to work out. My father was also busy working hard to provide for the family, and simply had no time to work out either, though his job as a boilermaker was a very physical job. Aside from that, they always encouraged us to participate in sports, and we certainly did. I played t-ball/softball from 1st grade through my senior year in high school, along with volleyball and basketball in elementary and middle school. I ran track somewhere in there as well. My brothers did the same. As kids, we played outside all the time. Though, once I was in high school, sports is where my exercise routine stopped. In the summers, I had ZERO interest in going for a run or swimming for exercise, and into my adulthood, I still have ZERO interest. I don't know if the lack of deliberate exercise by my parents had such a profound effect on me or not. Maybe I am just the couch potato type. Who knows.

As parents, we are always worried about what our children see us doing and don't want them to have the same habits as us, like biting your nails, or for some smoking cigarettes (WHICH I DON'T DO...just an example people). But what we don't think about are the examples of what we are NOT doing, like getting off our butt's and exercising. The reason for exercising doesn't have to be to lose weight either. It is to be healthy and fit. I have been thin my entire life. By no means am I interested in losing any more than five pounds, which will bring me back to my pre-baby weight. At the same time, even though I have always been tall and slender, that doesn't mean I am in tip top physical shape. I have been blessed with some great genetics that allow me to stay thin. As I said, I put ZERO effort into my physique. To be completely honest, I eat like a line-backer, and still don't gain a thing. It's just me. And just because I am naturally tall and thin is no excuse to be a couch potato either. Especially because I don't want to raise three other couch potatoes. So, in the month of March......I will start checking off my list, STARTING WITH ZUMBA! It should be easy to fit into our new daily routine, which is getting up and getting our 4 year old ready for school. Getting my tush out of bed to do that is an achievement in itself for this night owl/late sleeper. Let's hope we can get this Zumba train moving!

With my husband being a graduate student and me being a stay at home momma, money is tight. Very tight. Although, from the outside looking in, it doesn't appear that way. We live comfortably. Comfortably within our means, that is! It is all about prioritizing, saving, and being able to resist the urge to splurge. When you are used to spending more, it is hard to adjust to spending less. But when you see that you don't need certain thing as much as you once thought, it feels good to have more money in your pocket than to just be blowing it.

My husband and I have forced ourselves to spend wisely since the day we got married. At that time, we had moved across the country to BEAUTIFUL San Diego from a middle of nowhere Indiana town. We had our wedding money, and a little bit of savings. To start off our marriage, we didn't take a honey moon, which our wedding money would have definitely covered, but we knew we would need that as we got on our feet. Really, that is the purpose of wedding money, to help you as a new couple...not to blow on a luxurious vacation. That a little harsh....but let's be real, if you don't have well paying jobs and you take all of your wedding money to fund a fab vacay, then return to a not so fab financial situation, clearly your priorities are out of wack. Ok...I am getting a bit opinionated. Anyway....so we were in SD with wedding money, small savings, a mattress, computer desk, wedding shower gifts and one car. The car was my car from high school, and was paid for by my parents. We had found one of the least expensive 1 bedroom apartments in the area. $1,000 rent. That's cheap for San Diego. My hubby was a new graduate student and I luckily found a spa job quickly. With our combined income we were not making much. Sadly to say though, we were making the most in that year than we ever have in our 7 1/2 years of marriage. We look back to those days now....3 kids later, as the glory days. :) Through that year though, we were very frugal with our money. We furnished our apartment from IKEA with about $1,500. Our TV was purchased with a Best Buy gift card we received as a gift. Instead of buying the super new, super expensive flat screen, we bought a $350 dino TV. At the time flat screens were new on the market, and very expensive and still today, we have our old dino tv. (We haven't splurged on a flat screen yet.) We wisely grocery shopped. With only one car, we were saving on our fuel costs. My husband biked to school or took public transportation We didn't go shopping for clothing unless it was something we really needed. We had my beauty school loan payment, but that was only $50 a month and my husbands loans were deferred. Since we started our lives like that, we have continued to spend this way, and it has allowed us to buy a house and have 3 children. If more people knew what we make, they would think we were NUTS! Money doesn't buy happiness though. Our little family is our happiness.

Along the way, we continue to make changes to improve our spending. We have observed that with our cable and cell phone bills that we aren't using them as much as we should for what we pay. So, we thought about what channels we tend to watch the most. What channels are we willing to sacrifice and so on. When we thought about it, we realized we pretty much watch local channels, some sports (which are a distraction to my hubby's thesis progress), and Nick Jr./Disney (which our kids watch WAY too much of). So, we evaluated our tv options. We were paying $80 a month for cable. We found that if we buy an antenna (one time payment of $45) for local channels and pay for HULU Plus ($7.99 a month) and stream it through our Nintendo Wii, we eliminate an $80 a month bill. That's roughly $865 we save in one year. Gosh....why didn't we think of this sooner!

As for our cell phones, we are not like the average 28 and 29 year olds that have data plans and use our phones all the time. There are some months where I use my cell phone a total of 15 minutes, and it was talking to my husband, so we used mobile to mobile minutes. (SIDE NOTE: We communicate with each other and most of our family through our apple Ipad and Ipod's Imessage in wifi zones or our land line making our cell phones for emergency purposes only. Secondly, our Apple products were gifts/replacements for our old dead desktop computer...still no splurging!) We are currently paying about $80 for our family cell phone plan. I know that is nothing compared to some. My parents cell bill is over $150 a month with my brother tacked onto their plan. So I know we have about the cheapest plan possible with contract phones. For us, we knew this was an unnecessary expense. We are paying so much for something we use so little. So after looking into it, we found that through our current cell company, At&t, they were able to give us new sim cards for free to become pay as you go customers. The sim card option is awesome because that eliminates the need for new phones. The ones we have work fine, why replace them. So, once the sim card is in place, we are paying $10 per phone a month for pay as you go cards. 10 cents a minute, 20 cents per text, no data. Exactly what we need. So, we are saving $60 a month from cutting our cell phone bill. That's $720 a year. AMAZING! In total, between cutting cable and our cell plan, we are now saving $1,585 a year! Isn't that amazing.

When other graduate students that are single, living on the same income as our family of 5, complain about not having any money, I just want to say, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME"! I guess it's all about perspective and priorities. As a family of 5 with the small income that we have, we are considered a family in poverty according to our government. We are far from poverty. My children have full bellies, we have two vehicles, a very nice heated and cooled home, closets full of clothes, electronic devices, internet, a washer and dryer. We are far from poverty. Sadly people out there with the same income and same family size do seem more poverty like due to poor spending habits. Again, it's all about prioritizing and spending wisely.

Think about your spending habits and how you could make changes to save money. Separate your needs from your wants. Maybe sell a car if only one of you are working, car pool to work if you live near a co-worker, bike to work, cut your luxury costs from your home, shop at Good-will and other thrift stores, never buy full price, cloth diaper your kiddos, make your own cleaning products, downsize to a smaller place with lower rent. The list could go on.

I will admit I have my moments where I wish I had more money. I find myself saying occasionally, "If I only had $100 more, or if our yearly income was only $5,000 more. At the end of the day, that isn't what matters. We are doing ok right where we are!

The list of goals hanging in our kitchen is working. Having it there for all to see helps me to not forget about it.

Last week was busy. You can tell by looking at my house. It is quite a mess with loads of laundry to catch up on, but who cares. Last week I did a lot of emailing back and forth to my 4 1/2 year olds new preschool! It's official, he is starting this week. We are so excited to be accomplishing one of the goals set for him. He is excited as well!

On the mom side of it, now that the time is here, it makes my heart hurt a little. I've been crying a little here and there....I won't deny it. With three kids in our tiny house, for the past year, I would dream of the day that I would be able to send him off to school for part of the day for a little bit of relief. Don't get me wrong, the relief that will soon come with him attending preschool will be welcomed with open arms. But, it is sad that my little guy is not so little anymore. It makes me feel guilty that I didn't do more fun things one on one with him in his first 4 1/2 years of life. I hope that he looks back at this time and thinks it was fun. I admit that I have taken for granted this time with my first, as if he was going to be home with me forever. I know I am not sending him off to college just yet, but it's the first step along the way to his independence. And for heavens sake, he is only going to be gone for a few hours a couple days of the week and I can see his school from my front yard, but it will still be tough. He won't be in my care. I am putting my trust in people I barely know to watch and teach my beautiful boy who has spent only one night away from me EVER! I have to look at the positive though. Even though he has been tethered to me since birth, we have raised quite an independent little man who is ready and willing to go out into the world of preschool with no hesitation. When we went to visit the school, he was freaking out a little, but once he saw all that preschool had to offer, he was ready to fly. My husband and I could have left him there right then, and he wouldn't have cared. It hurt just a bit, but the joy in his eyes and his big boy confidence makes up for my momma pains. I will make it through. All mommas do. :)

As for the rest of the week, I was busy researching what prefold diapers and diaper covers I would like to buy to build up my stash some more, as well as researching ways to cut our monthly luxury costs; i.e. cable/phone bill. Let me tell you, that is a chore and it's hard to let go of things that are nice to have, but you don't NEED. I sat at the computer all week. I will tell you all about my findings, and what works for us soon!

I leave you with a poem....

I hope my children look back on today, and see a mother who had time to play. There will be years for cleaning and cooking, for children grow up when you aren't looking.

Here we are at February 1st. As for my goals of the year, on my end, the only one accomplished so far is working on this blog. SUCCESS! As a family, even though to an outsider it would appear that we haven't had much going on in January, we have been making slow changes.

Along with the normal day to day shenanigans of my kiddos, we have worked on paying close attention to the food we are buying. Buying less processed foods, and more organic, whole foods. Again....this is a very slow transition as we find things that we like to change our eating style. Especially when you are so used to buying a lot of convenient garbage. I am having the biggest struggle with this because I hate cooking. My hubby is the chef in this house, and I am far from sous chef. My cooking level is still college dorm style. Ramen noodles and mac n cheese. I will persevere. Not only for my own health, but especially for my children! So far I have eliminated everything that has been hiding in the confines of our cabinets. Anything that is old enough that you don't remember when you bought it, and still appears to be good, can not be good for you. GONE!

We have kid's so there are some things that I will still indulge in, but with an alternative. I have to admit, I have a very deep love for boxed mac n cheese. Shapes to be exact. This is total no, no territory for the direction I want to move towards with my eating habits, but as they say, old habits die hard! So without eliminating my dear friend, I have switched to a different "healthier" brand of mac n cheese.

Back to Nature Mac and Cheese. I love this stuff! I find it to taste much better than Kraft. Also, you use less butter and more milk, which is how I altered my Kraft mac anyway. Because it is more pricey, I consume less of it as well. It is an occasional lunch for the kids and myself as apposed to a overly regular menu item. So there you have it, another step in the right direction.

Along with our new grocery adventures, I am also reading so much about a more natural lifestyle, and it is so overwhelming. At times you feel like the steps you are taking aren't enough. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a slow process and that I can not change my habits overnight. Financially, I can't suddenly change everything at once either. I want to change for my family, but I also want to be helping those around me along the way by shopping locally, and not supporting MEGA companies that treat their employees and our environment terribly. So much research is involved, but in the end, I know it will pay off. I just have to stick with my mission of SLOWLYincreasing my level of "crunchy"!

So, we are getting a late start on our goals of the year, but hey....I have three kids under the age of four. Making the list in itself is a completed goal.

Last year was the first time in my life that I ever made a new years resolution. It was simple. Visit my 91 year-old grandmother once a month. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, living an hour and 15 minutes away was the first challenge, along with the cost of gas increasing ALL THE TIME. Let me remind you....at the time, we were a family of 4 on a graduate student stipend. UGH! Now we are 5! YIKES! Anyway, I was successful in visiting her monthly until early September. After that, I was expecting our 3rd baby at the end of October, and I remained close to home until he was born. She only had to come to me one time, then we saw each other over the holidays. So, in the end, I did manage to see my grandma at least once a month the entire year, whether I went to her or she came to me. I think my first time at a resolution was a success. So this year, I am broadening the idea of resolutions to family goals for the year. For my husband and I, there will be different categories, and for the kids, theirs will be selected for them, and very simple and realistic. The kiddo's goals will also involve, for some, more effort on my end than theirs, but it is still their goal.

So here it is folks. Our family goals.. I have this hanging in the kitchen as a constant reminder of what we would like to achieve individually and as a family in the year of 2013.

Brian’s GoalsProfessional: Start & Complete ThesisFind a Post Doc/JobPersonal: Get back in shape

Blogging is something that has appealed to me for quite some time, but I simply couldn't come up with an idea to blog about. It was something on my mind regularly. You would think I have enough inspiration within my home. I have three growing boys under 4. My husband is wrapping up his Ph.D. in nuclear physics. I stay at home with the kiddos, and spend WAY to much time on the internet "pinning", shopping, reading blogs and using Facebook. Finally last week, it came to me. In the past year, our family has been slowly evolving towards a more natural, eco-friendly lifestyle, sometimes referred as a "crunchy" lifestyle. It is something that is certainly a work in progress. I love calling it "crunchy". The term "crunchy" recently came to me while reading a blog post on The Leaky Boob . She describes herself towards the middle of the post as a certain level of "crunchy", which is exactly what we are. We aren't full blown "granola crunchers". We are our own variation of one.

Pinterest has played a major role in our "crunchy" revolution. I have learned about making my own household cleaning products, including laundry detergent, window cleaner, soap scum remover, etc.. I have discovered various inexpensive products that I can use in my daily hygiene routine that are simply found in the grocery store aisles. My most recent favorite is coconut oil! In the past year, I also began cloth diapering our 2 year old. It hasn't been easy, but it is worth it, and the diapers are so cute! Pinterest has helped me through the challenges with tips and tricks on maintaining the diapers. Needless to say...THANK YOU PINTEREST!

The food we eat in our home has been changing along the way as well. The quality of meats and vegetables in the local grocery stores and big box stores is not good. At the same time, we can not afford to go 100% organic on a graduate student stipend with a family of 5. So, we have made some alterations to the things we buy, and how we prepare our foods along with a few important organic items. A perfect example, we buy organic root vegetables. Root vegetables tend to suck up more pesticides and toxins than other fruits and veggies.

So, this is just the beginning or our "crunchy" revolution. I look forward to discussing in more depth about the changes we are making in our home as well as sharing with you stories about my day to day adventures as a stay at home momma to 3 boys. Here we go!

I am a crafty, Pinterest crazed music lover sharing my adventures as a stay at home momma, raising three boys and a husband while working on parenting and an overall more natural, eco-friendly lifestyle. Slowly, but surely increasing my level of "crunchy"